Saturday, 14 May 2011
Critical Evaluation
1.In what way does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Within our media product , we made sure to keep continuity flowing and unbroken which I think we achieved very well, Also during the filming and editing of our product we also realised how much each of us had learned the year before in terms of learning media terms and names of camera shots etc. One problem we had this year which I also found was extremely easy to do if you weren't thinking hard about it was breaking the 180 degree rule , we did this on our first time filming and didn't notice until it was edited in and this caused a few problems , but a quick re-shoot and edit solved the problem without too much hassle.
In terms of content our film reflects a lot of of the conventions used within other family films and personally I think it does it very well , for instance the premise of a brother who has become invisible to other people could be used in a lot of light-hearted family films, although within our film I think It challenges the genre a little bit because instead of being light-hearted , it can be quite sad at parts but eventually returns to the happy and cheerful setting of family films at the end. We also used an ever so slight homage to the film Ghost starring Patrick Swayze in which the lead character wrote boo on a steamed up mirror to scare an associate , in our film we wrote help on a steamed up bathroom mirror , it wasn't an intentional homage but a homage nevertheless.
Our film hasn't used a whole lot of what could be known as pastiche or reference to other films except in the use of certain camera shots which can be used a lot within the family genre of film , for instance the shot of Connor entering his room undressed and the door opening back up instantly with him dressed is something which I have seen a few times in my days watching films for example it was used on the trailer for the film Freaky Friday starring Lindsay Lohan , personally it was my favourite shot in the entire film and I think the same went for the small audience who evaluated it.
I Think our film grips the audience and makes them want to watch further to see what happens to the brothers and see if everything turns out well, I am confident that we have achieved this because of our audience research where we showed our film to other people within the college , and almost 100% of the feedback was very positive about the plot and storyline , I Also think some of the more emotional scenes in the film could've achieved a goal of gripping the audience by making them relate to the pain of the characters and therefore make them feel for what happens to them.
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2. How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
Within our film , the main moral is the feeling of loss and how it can affect a family and people close to you, Both of the brothers throughout the start of the film seem to not get along at all , but Josh's character seems to want to make up with his brother because he's close to him , but Connor's character seems to feel nothing for him, but as the film goes on and after Josh's character disappears his true feelings are shown through his tears and Laura's character's sheer panic at what her parents are going to thing. The moral of that is the fact that family will always be close and will always be family , And some families wouldn't get a second chance if somebody ran away like the chance that Ryan got , and it could rip families apart.
Whilst creating our radio trailer the one point that we really wanted to hit home was that we wanted the audience to have a small idea what the plot would be without giving a whole lot away which I think we achieved rather well , we also managed to show Ryan's feelings towards Lewis “Would you cry if I died? Honestly.. no” and the state of sheer panic Jayne is in towards the end “Fine I’ll look for him by myself!”. We achieved our goal I think because we managed to lay down a brief overview of the plot for the audience without giving away any of the big moments like Ryan's disappearance.
One of the main ways in which we managed to get the plot of the film across was by using a voice-over in which I was the one reading the script , this made it so we could get some more of the plot out to the audience that we couldn't tell using sound bytes from the film , for instance when I said “Two brothers who never go along , until one of them goes missing” it told the audience a little bit more about the story , and the dramatic pause in the middle of the sentence might have drawn the audience in a little more.
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3. What have you learnt from your Audience feedback?
Our first feedback came from early audience research which was conducted using a the Sony HDV Camera , we asked questions that related to us trying to get a 12A rating and certain things that could've effected that , the feedback we got for that was that light swearing that wasn't very frequent could be used but nothing strong could be used for example the F or C words , or the rating could not be achieved. In the end the only real swear word we used was 'Pissed' which would not be found offensive by very many people and wouldn't effect the 12A rating.
We also asked a few light-hearted questions such as “what would you do if you were invisible for a day?” which could've drawn the audience in and wanted to see the finished product to see if there was any of that sort of humor , we also gave them a quick pitch of our film to see what they thought , and it ended up being a unanimous 'yes' to it being good.
Because of the amount of shots we had at our disposal this year because of the 5 minute length , we found that even after editing our film was at about 9 minutes in length which is colossally too long and obviously had to be cut down , but after we managed to get it down to just over 5 minutes we found a few problems when showing the audience, they found that sometimes the passage of time could not be seen very well , so we edited in titles such as “The Next Day” which the audience found to be much easier to follow.
Above are two videos , the latter is audience research from the start of the year, and the former is feedback for our finished film.
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4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During this year of filming and editing , I have found numerous new pieces of technology which made things a lot easier , for instance the new camera we used which was the Sony HDV Camera , which due to it being a HD camera gave us a lot more options in filming because of the added definition , for instance last year when using the smaller hand-held cameras , certain things couldn't be seen such as writing on small signs etc. , I for one really enjoyed using this new piece of equipment and would love to use it again in the future. The weight of it meant a little bit of backache when carrying it long distances but this wasn't a massive problem really.
This year I also used the internet site Blogger to note down lots of the little things we had been doing such a filming schedules , shot lists etc. , which I found to be really interesting how we could show everybody near enough everything we'd done. Other than a few little problems with structuring of posts and images I found it to be a great help to the cause.
During the A2 year we used Final Cut Express to do our editing which even though I didn't do much editing wise this year , the little I did do was found to be much easier , the program was much smoother than the software we used last year and things were generally easier to find and use , effects were all together in a large list , as were transitions and text options , which I found to be very helpful , I also found it quite similar to more streamlined software such as Windows Movie Maker in certain ways , but the added options made it an excellent way to make our film look great , if I had to complain about one part of it though , it would be the fact that if you accidentally clicked the effects toolbar away , it was rather difficult to find again and we usually needed Simon to help us find it again , but other than this small quibble it was and excellent top notch piece of software.
Other than a few tiny problems this year with attendance due to family issues and illness , I think we managed to create a great film and get even closer to the people in my group as good friends , this shows another side to the media course. That even though I’ve learnt so much about creative media , film , Camera shots.. and even more things than I can even state , The biggest thing I think I gained was closeness and friendship with my classmates.
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Critical Evaluation
Whilst we was editing our film together we was wary of trying to find any continuity errors that we hadn't seen and tried to cut our film together so it was able to flow without errors.
When our final film was fully edited, there was very little continuity and other errors that was left in the film. At the beginning of the film the sky changes colour as Connor walks towards the door is an example but whilst we was editing our film together, we encoutered problems with people being caught in camera that are suppose to be out of shot, and where people are caught in shot when there not suppose to.
I think that our final film cut is cut together well showing good continuity matches. The shots where there are matches on action between the two boys and their sister in the front room shows the audience who the people are talking to, which avoids confusion and the shot where Connor walks into his room and the door shuts with him in a towel and then reopens straight away with him fully clothed is good continuity and shows fantasy in that he has changed very quickly.
Our film was suppose to be a Drama/Fantasy which I think that we have captured fantastically, as a drama is suppose to be highly emotional and contains some action which I feel we have captured the emotion side of it by the boy feeling lonely and then disappears and the other boy as to get real emotional to bring back his brother in which can effect the audience, being if the audience is sensative that they could cry at the film. We also captured the Fantasy genre well with the boy becoming invisible and things happening in the house that could be unexplained with their being no one there.
With our film, we all felt that our films storyline compared with the storyline of the film “Freaky Friday” in which we got the idea for our film from. The shots where writing on the mirror whilst Connor is in the shower and the shot where Connor shuts the door in a towel and re opens it straight away wearing clothes, is taken from the film “Freaky Friday“ also as we fealt they were ideal and good shots for us to be able to include into our film and make it a great film that is good for our target audience and entertain the audience.
The kinds of Audience Pleasure that we feel we have accomplished from this film when the audience watches the films are Social interaction as there will be people that can relate and interact with the characters in the film. Also I think we have accomplished the Intensity of Eutopeia in Richard Dyres Therory, as our film is a drama so it has to hit every emotion we can, and also I think there is a bit of Energy as we have some quick cuts involved in the film. I think the main one we hit as a film is Community, I think that it is a family film so it is about brothers and a sister which can give only childs ideas to fantasize about and also for current families to relate to how they feel and act to each other. Also our film includes a voyeuristic element as the audience is viewing the film without the involved actors reacting to the audience viewing.
The similarities between the two posters are that there is one main image to capture the focus of the audience, however on ours there is a few other images as well, one as a background for the title to pull focus to that, and another to show the characters in our film as the main image does not show that. As well as the image both posters have reletively the same size font for the title, which you can easily read on both. Both film posters have a tagline on them, with the 'Hancock' posters tagline reflecting the main charachter in the film, and our tagline is on our poster to capture the audience and make them think about the film, and what will happen in the film.
On the radio trailer, we have lines from the film involved which allows the audience to get a sneak of some dialogue and also we have a voice over that tells information and the snipet line of our film, which its intent is to attract the audience to watch the film to find out what “The fate of one, rests with the other” means.
Whilst we was filming, we always had the audience in mind in which we would always open up what we was planning to film to in which whether the audience would be able to understand it, and I think that all of our shots that we filmed are easily able to be understood by the audience because of the editing and storyline. We changed very little in the film from the original idea, however we made slight changes in the film due to circumstances like actors not being able to film on certain days in which made us decide to change the film, in which I feel those changes have made the film a lot more clearer for the audience to view.
Once we had put a draft copy of our film together we got some more feedback from the audience which focused on thoughts on the film, editing and music but also improvements we could make to make our final piece the best standard it can be.
Improvements that was suggested was that someone felt that the conversation between the two brothers when one of the brothers reappears, they felt that it was such a normal conversation and it could have been a more high tempo to the conversation. More often than not it was slight errors in our editing that was suggested for our improvements but we was already aware of those problems in which I think we have erased well.
From these responses, we was able to make improvements to the film and make it into a what I think is to be a very good film. And all round the responses where all similar in that the film was very good and suggested similar improvements.We fealt that the audience's feedback aloud us to focus on the slight errors in our editing as the responses was that we had created a very good film.
Monday, 11 April 2011
Critical Evaluation - Connor Asquith
While filming our project we had to do many different techniques to keep the film running smoothly and continuous. Firstly we tried to obey the 180 degree rule so that it didn’t confuse our audience as it will have made the characters on screen look like they have jolted from one position to another. We also put in eye line matches, so that the camera would cut to something significant that our characters were either reaching for or looking at, this helped the film run seamlessly, although in most cases we did have to re film some bits. We also had to comply with the 30 degree rule, this is where if you are doing a close up of something from a long shot/medium shot, you must move the camera 30 degrees left or right, so that when it is edited together it doesn’t look like it jumps together. Finally we used a few Matches on Action to help make it continuous, we used this for going through doors, so we would use shoot the door from one side and as it is slightly opened, use a shot from the other side of the door and edit them together to make it run smoothly.
I don’t think our film breaks the genre in many ways as it is a Family / Fantasy, however it sticks to the genre it is in well I believe. Firstly seen as it is a family film, the ending needs to be a happy one so it doesn’t leave our audience disappointed, also there needs to be a hidden message somewhere within a family film so that the younger audience members can take something away from it, and our hidden message was that you should love your family, and not fight one another. Furthermore being a hybrid genre with the twist of fantasy involved, our film follows in the footsteps of many fantasy films by having some over the top plot twists thrown in. For our film it is the invisibility of one of the brothers. The only thing that I think sets our film apart to the other films in its genre s the slight darkness to its story line, that because of one brother the other has disappeared and can’t be found, it is rare that you see something as traumatic in a family film.
During our film we do use shots from other films, and also use some ideas. The major one that appears in our film is a shot we used that we found in another family film called “Freaky Friday” which was the quick change of costume, we use it after the shower sequence where the character “Lewis” gets out the shower and goes to get changed, but the camera stays outside his door as it shuts, and then immediately opens to show “Lewis” completely dressed differently.
Throughout the film we are trying to show our audience that family is a key part in anyone’s life, and not to take it for granted as you may miss it once it is gone. I believe we met this goal as once we had finished the film; we showed it to a few people and recorded their response. The majority said it was a good story line and was powerful. We also wanted the audience to also just enjoy the films fantasy twist, and I also believe we met that because the response from the people we recorded said it was a clever and entertaining idea.
Overall our film fits in its genre well because every member of our group researched about the genre and what makes it what it is. An example is “The Sixth Sense” this helped us with the idea for the invisibility, as in the sixth sense there are people only the main character sees, but in that case they are ghosts. Also the children’s classic “Casper” gave us some ideas, the idea we got from this film is the jokes the ghost’s pull on humans while they are invisible. We tried to incorporate this in our film when “Ryan” is trying to let his brother and sister know that he is still there in the house.
While analysing the film "The Fall" I noticed some similarities between both our films, firstly the main point that joins our films together is the fact that both of them are based around two brothers. In "The Fall" the two brothers get along fine, while "Jason" looks after his brother who has mental issues "Darren". Whereas in our film the two twins "Lewis" and "Ryan" no longer see eye to eye since their Grandfathers death. The character "Jason" is similar to our character "Lewis", "Jason" being the protector of his younger brother and showing his compassionate side when he still says goodbye to his father despite what he has done. Whereas "Lewis" doesn't show that side of himself until he starts to realise that his brother may never come back because of what he did, it is in the final scene that we see his true feelings towards his brother.
Another way that our films are similar is that they both have a fantasy twist to them, "The Fall" has its strange Graffiti that helps the two brothers reunite, but in our film "Ryan" hasn't ran away he is invisible and the only way for "Lewis" to bring him back is to show his true feelings. The way the Graffiti is shown in "The Fall" was really clever and I have never seen anything as unique done before. That is what gave us as a group the idea to come up with plans for our invisibility shots, like the writing on the mirror while no one is there and appliances turning on.
Question 2 I believe with the combination of our film and our ancillary texts, the poster(s) and our radio trailer would do an effective job on selling our film to the audience. What we were trying to achieve from creating our film was mainly to entertain the audience and get them wrapped within the story, but also the little hidden message that you should treasure your family. I think with our hidden message thrown into the film, I think it will help our audience connect with the film and the characters within it, making them enjoy it more because they may be able to relate with something during the film. I believe that our posters do a good job of advertising the film to our audience as it gives away subtle hints of what will happen in the story from the slogan ‘The Fate of One...... Rests with the other’ this arouses the audience’s attention and makes them want to see what one of the characters ‘Fate’ is. I believe that our radio trailer would help sell our production as it has the deep voice advertising the film in the background giving hints about the storyline, we decided on this because all the big blockbusters do the same. Furthermore we have cut some sound from our actual film, which again we used because when I did my radio trailer analysis I noticed that they all have sound clips cut from their films that are key points in the story. By doing this it makes the audience what to know what is happening in the film and that is why we did that in our radio trailer. Also we decided upon putting some music over the top of our radio trailer, we used the song we use on the big emotional scene at the end of our film. The song really emphasises what is happening in the film, and we thought it would make the radio trailer stick in the minds of our audience thus making them watch our film. Finally one idea I got from the ‘Batman’ radio trailer was to use a sound effect at the end of the radio trailer that is from the film, and make it echo at the end of the trailer as it really builds up the tension and sticks with the audience.
I believe our film poster would do a good job of catching the audiences attention and pulling them into watching our film. It is similar to the Batman poster I analysed, as both are very simple and not too much going on. Both have very subtle hints within them, for example on our poster the first thing you see is a hand slightly blurred out holding the Grandfathers pocket watch. This is to show the audience that the pocket watch is an important part of the story. The fact that the hand is blurred out is to hint towards the invisibility of the holder during the film. The second thing that catches the audiences eye is the photo of the twins "Lewis & Ryan" this is to show that this photo is also relevant to the story and to let the audience know who the main characters are and to keep their eyes on them. Finally behind the actors names, there are some photos of the Grandfather of the twins. This is a very subtle hint as people will know why they are there once they watch the film, the reason they are there is to show that even thought the Grandfather isn't actually on the film who plays a key part in the storyline.
We tried to base our poster on the other film poster we analysed, I choose to do Batman The Dark Knight as I believe simple poster with hidden messages and hints about the film are most effective. Examples on this poster are the destroyed city in the background, the main character stood in the middle, the weapon in his hand etc. I believe our poster would do just a good a job as this poster would as it is also simple but effective.
Question 3
We learnt a lot from doing research into our audience and getting feedback from them, during the planning stage we had wrote up a basic story line and decided to get some feedback from our potential audience. We wrote a series of questions and then got some of our peers to answer the questions as we filmed their responses. This was a big help as we took their opinions and made changes to our film’s script, an example would be to take out the Priest character as people thought it would be a bit far fetched for a priest to be coming to the twins house and attempt to get rid of the ghost which is actually the invisible "Ryan".
Whilst filming and editing our film we tried to ensure our films meaning was apparent by making sure the film was continuous and flowed nicely, we also tried to make sure the audience could see what was actually happening when one of the characters is invisible. We used close ups on the kitchen scene to allow the audience see that there is something important happening. We also used special effects and sound effects on important scenes to make sure the audience didn’t miss them, the main ones were the flash effect on when "Ryan" disappears and reappears along side a loud wind like noise to emphasise the fact that something strange is happening. We used a variety of creative decisions during the creation of our film, in planning we listened to our audience feedback and tweaked our script and plot to make it more appealing to our audience, an example of this was to tone down the special effect of the flash and the sound of "Ryan" disappearing as our audiences thought it was a bit over the top. During rehearsing and the actual filming of our film we decided not to use too much bad language as we wanted a relatively young audience, and we didn’t want the film to be all about bad language to tell the story.
We also decided on trying to make the characters more relatable so that our audience can easily get lost in our story and maybe even see a part of themselves in the characters, "Lewis" for example is the typical big brother he will pick and poke at his younger brother 24/7. But if anyone else threatens him or if something happens to his younger brother the true side of him will come out to show his true feelings. Whilst editing we decided to put in a few special effects into our film as in our audience research, someone said if the special effect look good I will be excited to watch the film. So we made the decision to put in a few special effects on the key plot points to make them more memorable, but not to overdo it as it can be too much to take in for the audience. An example of this is the mirror scene where "Ryan" is writing on the mirror but we cant actually see him as he is invisible.
Once the film was practically done, we showed our peers a rough edit of our film to get some final feedback on any changes they could suggest, or any bit they thought were particularly memorable. We got mainly positive feedback, ranging from it being a very good film with a nice twist thrown in, to compliments on our effects and music choices during the film. People really liked the last scene where the music's lyrics matched up almost perfectly with what was happening on screen, and after all the fine tuning of our disappearance effects people said that it fitted in nicely with the film and was no longer over the top. But we also got some people noticing little mistakes during the film, like the shot not being framed properly, or there was an incident where you could see the character "Ryan" while he is supposed to be invisible, but overall we had a positive response from our audience.
Question 4
In the process of making the film I used many different media technologies in the several stages, firstly in the research stage I used the Internet to aid me finding out about the genre that our group decided on to make our film, this was very useful as it helped us stick to what makes that genre. Also once we had our film ideas ready, we made a questionnaire and then filmed the responses of our peers on what they thought of our pitch by using an HDV1000 camera, and then edited the best answers to the questions using ‘Final Cut express’ and put them onto ‘Blogger’.
In the planning stage of creating our film we used the HDV1000 camera again to plan out some of the trickier camera shots that appear in our film, the quick change where to door shuts, or the invisible person writing on the mirror for example. We also used ‘Blogger’ to make a shot-list so we knew where the camera needs to be in each scene, this was a huge help as last year we did also make a shot list, but didn’t really use it to the degree we have this year, also we did multiple back up shots in case the first wasn’t to the standard we wanted. Also during the planning stage, we did a video tour of my house where the film was going to take place. This was to show the audience what is going to happen where, but also to help us plan out our shots as we could re watch this video over and over again. We also used a normal camera to take still shot photos of the key areas within my house so we could have a more in depth look on where the camera is going to be.
In construction, we used a vast range of media technologies; firstly we used the HDV1000 camera to shoot the entire film, although I didn't use the camera as much as I did in our AS project because I was generally the one being filmed I still helped out when I wasn't on screen. We then used a Capture device to transfer our film from the tape onto the computer. Once the un-edited film was on the computer we used ‘Final Cut express’ to edit our shots together to make the film also to add in titles and effects. Afterwards we used some CD’s to find some copyright free music, but we couldn’t find anything we thought fitted the tone of our film, so we used the Internet to find some music, and luckily we found some for the final scene in the film and also the opening and credits. Once the film was done, I used Adobe Photoshop to create a film poster to advertise our film using screen shots from our film and also some photos we had taken, each member of the group made their own individual poster, and then we put all our ideas together to make a joint, final poster. We also needed to make a radio trailer to advertise our film, so we used a Zoom Recorder to film a speech on the film that we had written and put on ‘Blogger’, we used ‘Garage Band’ to edit the radio trailer together and also used one of the songs we used in our film alongside some sound effects we downloaded off the internet. Also we needed to edit some scenes with a colour corrector, mainly the first scene where "Lewis" is walking towards the house, because there was too much blue of shot, making it look really cold which it actually wasnt.
Finally in the evaluation stages, we used ‘Blogger, Facebook and Youtube’ to get some feedback from the public by posting the final edit of our film on each of them and asking for feedback, by putting a questionnaire alongside the video, using media technologies for this stage really helped as we got a much wider range of feedback. We also used a HDV1000 camera to film some response of our peers after they have watched the film, then it is edited on ‘Final Cut express’ and posted on ‘Blogger’.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Critical Evaluation
1. In what way does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
One thing that I always seem to struggle with each year is the breaking of the 180-degree rule. Without even realising we had done it, in the first scene we only had one shot that was suitable for this part of the script, but it was the other side of the conversation, breaking the rule. Luckily, we were able to work around this by cutting the audio of the good shot that we had, and have a shot of me and Laura flicking through the photos, while the audio of Connor talking was playing over this shot. It wasn't how we planned this scene to work, but covered our backs by doing that extra shot that luckily saved us in the end.
In our film, we have hinted at one other film; Ghost starring Patrick Swayze. Our reference to this film would be the writing on the mirror, which we use in our film. In the film ghost, the character played by Patrick Swayze writes 'Boo' on the mirror to scare his assosciate. We contrast this in our film by writing 'Help' on the mirror. Not a massive reference to another film, yet, this is as close at it gets.
Audience pleasure was something that we tried to achieve in our film. The moral to our story was that despite how horrible you can be to someone, or vice versa you can still miss them when they are gone. In our film, despite being nasty towards his brother, Lewis learned that he missed Ryan when he was gone. One thing that we hope people take away from our film would be to start treating others better, because you will miss them once they are gone. Luckily, Lewis had a second chance to put things right. The way we portrayed Lewis' grief was essential to audience relation. In the shot below, we see Lewis crying as he looks at a picture of him and his brother, by using a close up shot of Lewis which we do not use very often in the film, we can see the emotion in his face and hopefully the audience can relate to him. We weren't trying to provoke a reaction out of the audience in which they cried at our film but we were hoping that the audience would feel a bit sorry for Lewis despite how badly he treat his brother.
One shot that we used in our film, was the shot of Lewis shutting the door and then opening it again to be fully clothed. I originally got the idea for this off the trailer of Freaky Friday where Lindsay Lohan closes the door and opens it again, clothes changed. Since this was not a hard shot to do, as it was just a case of keeping the camera in the same poisition and cutting the time in between where it's just a recording of the door closed, it was something I incorporated into our film. It was a nice little shot, which required minimal effort. As well as the door shot, we also have the afore mentioned mirror shot.
We tried to achieve audience pleasure from our film by showing a sense of social interaction and the interaction of a family. By showing a somewhat dysfunctional family come together at the end, and get along with each other gives the audience some pleasure. The family on screen could be easy to relate to and allowed us to create a family film that hopefully the whole family would sit down and watch. Children would enjoy our film through the element of fantasy and we should see an element of remorse, if they were to have a younger or elder sibling who they weren't too nice to. We also covered Richard Dyers theory of Intensity of Eutopia as we tried to get the audiences emotions running high by including a scene where the elder brother is upset over losing his younger brother.
One element that we tried to achieve in our film was a bi-polar effect where we have moments a moment of severe sadness where they are looking over the pictures of the granddad, where the elder brother seems to get some sort of enjoyment off of the younger brother missing their Granddad and relishes in his discomfort. This role is changed when the younger sibling disappears where the elder sibling gets into a severe state of depression because he misses his brother, whereas the disappeared sibling is having fun playing with his brothers mind. Finally, at the end we see that both brothers are back to be in each others company, and seems to have changed their view of each other for the forseeable future.
In the film that I analyzed off the BBC Film Network, a noticeable comparison can be drawn between the younger sibling of Ryan in our film and the character of Darren in The Fall. Although Darren has a mental problem and his older brother Jason looks after him, the main comparison that can be drawn between the two would be the independence of the two of them, and the fact that they both go missing. The Fall was a great insight into something that we were wanting to achieve with our film and actually gave us some ideas that we could use in our final film, such as dialogue and highlighting the feeling of being alone which we applied to Lewis.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary texts?
The main moral to our story is the idea of losing somebody is close to you. Despite, the two bothers not getting along very well, and one actually being very nasty to the other, he still missed him when he had gone. The main thing that we want the audience of our film to see is that make use of the time that you have with someone, because before you know it, they could be cruelly snatched away from you. Luckily, Lewis was able to change and got Ryan back. But others obviously won't be as lucky to acquire a second chance.
When it came to creating our radio trailer, we obviously didn't want to give too much of the storyline away. In the trailer, we tried to highlight how nasty Lewis was to Ryan by including the line 'Would you cry if i died?' Honestly, no. Then later on, Jayne in a state of panic by saying 'fine i'll go look for him by myself, clearly showing that she cared that he had gone missing By doing this, there is no way to know that Ryan disappears through something enchanting, the audience just thinks that Ryan has run away.
We also used the element of voice over, using the voice of Luke in which he told the audience certain elements of the story which could not be put across using sound clips from our film. The voiceover tells us of 'two brothers who never got along, until one of them goes missing', which helps the audience to understand more what the film is about. Voice overs are used often in radio trailers to highlight parts of the story that would otherwise be difficult to tell. Through the radio trailer, we were also able to tell the audience that there is some history between the brothers, and have not been getting on very well for quite a significant period of time.
The film poster that I chose to analyse was the one by the film Freaky Friday. I chose to analyze this film simply because it was so close to ours int what we were trying to achieve in terms of characters and relative plot. Some ideas that we took from this film idea was the use of both main characters been used in the poster in a similar position. We then obviously included the usual things you would expect to see in film posters, such as the title, the actors names etc.
Despite having a fairly complex storyline in the planning stages, we tried to make the story as easy to follow as possible, so only used a linear narrative so as the audience weren't confused. An advantage of this was that editing was a lot easier as we just had to make sure it happened in the right order, and other advantage would be that the story was easy to follow and you weren't having to think about earlier flashbacks or have to sort out in your head what order everything was happening in.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
With our original audience research, conducted on the HDV Sony Camera, are main question that we wanted to find out would be the use of swearing in a 12A film. We also asked many other questions, which included giving us some ideas on what they would do if they were invisible for a day. We already had an idea what we were going to do, we just wanted people to be creative and suggest some ideas.
From the question about swearing we discovered that they would expect mild swearing but no use of strong words such as the 'F' word or the 'C' word. This helped us in our final film as we ended up using the word 'pissed'. Not a swearword to most, but it is quite a strong word, but it would pass for a 12A certificate. Other things we found out from our original audience research was if people regularly watched films, espsescially short films and what they though to our particular genre. It was also interesting to see what people though of our original pitch and we got a unanimous answer that it was good pitch, if we pulled it off.Editing took us a long time this year, since it was a 5 minute film we obviously had more shots to shoot, meaning more shots to edit. When originally creating our story on Final Cut Xpress, we ended up having the film touching on 9 minutes long. This was obviously not acceptable and through extensive cutting we got it down to 5:35. So that the audience followed the linear narrative of our film, we added titles saying 'The next day..' to a few shots so that the audience definitely new that a day had passed. Despite only being on for a few seconds, it just gives the audience a push in the right direction.
One positive accolade that a lot of people was saying that they were impressed the enjoyment that they got from watching our film seen as we only filmed in one location. Other groups were travelling up and down the country, or going to different places around Barnsley to complete their films, yet we had a simple walk down the street to our location and no more was needed to be done as everything that we wanted to achieve could be achieved in the house. When conducting audience research, I asked the question where did any of the characters reminded them of anyone and were they relatable. One interesting one that I got back was that the character of Lewis was likened to David Platt off Coronation Street, in the general moody behaviour that he displayed. Although this was not something that we were wanting to achieve, it is an excellent comparison of two young outlaws who were generally not very nice people. We also received numerous praises for our film saying how we were able to create such a good film without spending any money and just using resources that we already had available. No money was spent on props or anything for our film, and this was advantagious due to us setting our film in the present day, meaning no money was needed to be spent on costumes or props, like we had to do last year.
4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
For our media project I have successfully used an HDV Sony Camera, as well as Final Cut Xpress when it came to editing our project. As well as this, I also used Blogger to record all of our posts on an online blog. An advantage of using the HDV Sony Camera is that it is able to shoot in very good quality and it is a very professional piece of equipment, and I enjoyed using and operating this piece of technology. The only minor problem I had with the HDV camera would be carrying it to our destination became a real pain seeing as how heavy it is, but this was not a major problem.
Final Cut Xpress really enabled to me be creative. I am one of those people who will try every single effect to see which one is the best one, no stone is left unturned. After searching through all the effects on Final Cut, I eventually found the ‘Flash-Frame’ video transition which became an important part of our film and I ended up using this transition 3 times in our film. An advantage of this particular transition is that the shots didn’t have to be identical, and in the 3 shots that I used them, the character in the shot moved, but this is not noticeable seen as a flash takes up the entire shot. One problem that I had with Final Cut Xpress would be the computer itself that it was actually on were generally quite fast, but one time our computer completely crashed and refused to eject a disc I had in the tray, meaning no editing could be done for a lesson until the computer would be fixed next lesson.
Finally, Blogger is a very useful way of uploading our work as this meant that any person in our group can access our work, if needs be. This also meant that none of our work could be distorted or lost and people could apply tags to particular posts that they have contributed to, showing us who has done which pieces of work. One problem that I encountered with blogger was the ordering of your posts. By adding pictures to a post, it automatically added the picture at the beginning of the blog and this was irritating if you wanted the picture at the bottom of the post and you had to try and drag it to the bottom of the post, in a relatively small box.
Apart from a few minor problems, I have been able to let my creative nature go into full flow and maximise my potential and overall, I am really satisfied with the end product. The equipment I used was very simple to use and if I didn’t know how to do something, I would somehow figure out how to do it.Blogger, became a royal pain in the arse, and really annoyed me this year, compared to last year. After deciding I had some time to type up some evaluation, I wrote 3 lengthy paragraphs. I then decided to try and embed a video and blogger crashed, wiping my work that I had done previously. General log in issues also became quite frequent in that we couldn't actually log in and edit work due to an error code saying that I had signed in but then said that I hadn't signed in. Also the uploading and dragging of photos to the place where you wanted to be on your post became quite tedious and the embedding of videos would often be quite irritating if it was bigger than the actual blog post and was too big for the blog itself and made it generally unmessy. However, one major advantage of using Blogger would be anybody could update their work at any time and see what other work other people in the group, as apposed to if we had done all our work in a workbook, we could have all done a similar piece of work and only one could have been submitted. Also, being a faster typer than I am a writer, I was able to get work done a lot faster.
Monday, 4 April 2011
Entwined, Radio Trailer
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
Entwined Poster Idea - Connor Asquith
This is just a draft design of my poster idea, we are all creating a poster and we will be putting our ideas together to make a joint poster.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Film Poster
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Questions for our critical evaluation
- What did you think of our film? Was the story easy enough to follow? and were the characters easy to relate to?
- What genre do you think our film is?
- What age rating would you say our film is? please give reasoning for your age rating.
- Did you like the music in our film?
- What did you think to the disappearing effect?
- What did you think to the writing on the mirror?
- Any further comments?
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Karate Kid Poster Analysis
The poster i have chosen to analyze is that of the new "Karate Kid" Remake of the 1984 classic , the film is embedded within the family genre like our film "Entwined".
The first thing that the audience would notice on the poster would be the large silhouette of the titular character in the center, the character is very large within the poster and takes up almost the entire thing stating that he is certainly a main character , Usually when a character is Silhouetted it could mean that they are an antagonist, but in this case it is not true.
The title is next to the silhouette , it is still rather big and is coloured in white, this contrasts it from the dark silhouette and the deep red background so it catches the eye.
At the top of the poster are the names of the two main actors in the film , Jackie Chan is a worldwide known actor and therefore could bring in more customers who would want to see him, it also helps that the film involves fighting and this is what Chan is best known for.
Also within the film is Jaden Smith , who before the film came out was not very well known at all , this is probably why he takes up so much room on the poster as well as being the main character.
In the bottom right corner text reading "Coming Soon" as well as a web link to the film website could peak the potential audiences excitement , and they will most likely go to the website to try and find the date which it will be released because the poster does not state it.
No directors name is on the poster , maybe meaning that the director is not well known , so the poster relies on its stars.
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Film Analysis
I decided to analyse this film as it is similar to our film in that it is a film about brothers in which one of the brothers has to overcome a problem.
As the film begins you first see a black background in which then cuts straight into a blurred shot of what looks to be a street light and then pans to the right pulling into focus a close up of a steel fence with Simon with his face pressed to it. You then get a match on action of a medium close of boys playing basketball and then a medium shot of three girls drinking alcohol out of bottles. It then moves back to the male with his head against the fence and he puts his face towards the floor. This initially leads you to believe that Simon is feeling lonely or by himself, and wishes to be part of the group on the basketball court, this leads you to sympathize with the male.
It then cuts back to a black background with the title 'Bro' in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
After the title screen, it cuts to a close up of steam coming out of a kettle in a kitchen and then to the close up of a kettle in the space of three to four seconds, in which it then pans to a medium close up of Simon and his brother in what looks like there sat at a table. This allows the audience to decide whether or not the two boys are the main characters in the film.
The next shots are close ups are of Simon's brother Mark making himself a cup of tea, and he fills up the cup too much with the milk so that it overflows, but just before, Simon had some dialogue saying "Just a little bit", which makes you believe that Mark is not got a fully functional mind or that he has some sort of defect, and then after Simon says "Mark, just a little bit" and sighs loudly and his mum says shes working late again, which leads you to think that Simon is the key person responsible for looking after or making sure that Mark is okay.
Further indication that Simon has to look after Mark as later on in that scene you have a medium close ups and close ups of Simon helping Mark get dry after his bath.
In the film, there is an early indication that Simon is embarrased of Mark, as while he is drying Mark, Simon steps out onto the balcony. There is then long shot of a girl that walks round a corner, in which then cuts to Mark in a towel coming out of the door in which Simon quickly rushes Mark back in. This may also indicate that Simon also fancies the girl that walks past.
Throughout the film there is evidence that Simon is embarrased or wishes that Mark isn't his brother, as he is always trying to hide his brother in public.
Towards the end of the film, once Simon is happy with seeing the girl that simon eventually feels confortable with his brothers problem, and eventually faces reality that Mark looks up to Simon.
This is relevant to our film that the film is about two brothers that one has to overcome a problem to share a bond with the other.
Film Poster Analysis
At the top of the film poster there is the name of the main actor in the film, Will Smith, which will attract people to go view the film as Will Smith is a big movie name that will attract plenty of fans.
The main picture of the poster is a shot from the movie of Will Smith, which again is using Will Smith as a grab for the viewers, as again they will sway towards the movie because of the reputation and quality of previous films made with Will Smith in them.
Along the bottom of the film poster, there is a slogan for the film, which is 'There are heroes, There are superheroes, And then there's...' with the movie title 'Hancock' beside it, which shows that its a movie about a superhero, but there's a twist to it, which is intended to grab the audience and make them watch it to find out what the twist is to the film.
Also underneath the title 'Hancock' there is the date of release for the film '07.02.08' which ideally should be on the film poster to allow the audience what date the film is released and available to view.
As well as the release date, there is also information about the film director and crew that is in very little font, so is very hard to see. Which they could have made it bigger, because the director could have been another pull towards the film, as directors such as Quentin Tarrantino draws people towards his films because he is a top quality director and makes great films.
Sunday, 27 February 2011
Radio trailer script
Poster analysis
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
Radio Trailer Analysis - Batman The Dark Knight
Monday, 21 February 2011
Poster Analysis - Batman The Dark Knight
The first thing that catches the audience eyes is the "Joker" who is centralised. The photo is shot from a low angle, to show power and authority. He is stood at an angle to connote his strange personality, and the face paint and colour of his hair also shows that this is a deranged individual. These are subtle hints on the poster which gives away information about storyline, without telling you too much. In his hand we can see a gun, which shows the audience this person is a villain, and is to be feared.
In the background we see a city skyline in ruins with sparks and embers floating in the wind around the central character, which tells the audience there is going to be disaster and plenty of action happening during the film. The centralised character implies who causes it all, but the poster doesn't give away how it's all going to happen. The buildings in the background are to the side of the poster, not in the center behind the central character - to keep the focus on the "Joker"
The colour of the sky shows that disaster has struck "Gotham City", with debris flying through the air. The pale grey sky that's practically black, shows how dark the centralised character is - which is in contrast with his bright, smart purple suit. This colour isn't generally associated with evil, this also emphasises how strange this character is.
The titles that are below the centralised character, at the bottom of the poster, have a burst of light coming out from behind the Bat (Batman's Logo) this shows hope and that "Batman" is trying to stop what is happening to "Gotham City".
The font is capitalised and coloured white to stand out from the main image and spread across the bottom of the poster and the letters are widely spaced from one end to the other. The poster doesn't say that it is a "Batman" film, but due to the Bat logo being behind the "Dark Knight" titles, the audience can depict what the film is.
Due to this film having an All Star cast, their names are along the top of the poster, in the same font as the main titles, to boast the fact that all the actors are well known. This is used to grab the audiences attention towards the film, because their favourite actors may be staring in the film.
Below the main titles, in a large bold font, are the words "Coming Soon" to generate interest in the film. When the audience see this poster and notice there is no specific date of release to the Cinemas, they will go out and research on the Internet to find a date, and maybe even watch some trailers, which in turn could generate word of mouth advertising.
Finally below "Coming Soon" is the companies that made the film happen, showing who made the film can also cause hype. Being produced by a big named company - in this case "Warner Bros", people will automatically think it is going to be a blockbuster due to their previous creations.